By Enrique Pavlioglou

Potential benefits can be seen from any angle when viewing the spectrum of IoT. It is hard to envision anything that won’t be connected in a near future. According to CSA around 50 billion devices will be connected by 2020, so just about everything we use in our daily lives will have some type of connectivity. As far as breaking IoT down into sectors, we could create a pyramid comprised of many markets/industries….

People will be monitored not only on a daily basis, but also on a more personal level. Health and fitness will be monitored in real time, education can and will be directed personally depending on the individual’s need. Personal training will probably no longer involve interaction with another human being. Vehicles, next on our list, may some day be fully automated. But not getting too ahead of ourselves, we might be able to stick to insurance personal rates that reward safe drivers. Homes will become smarter and smarter as time goes on. Smart home metering creating (such as eater and energy meters), in my opinion, the largest economic relief, will be the largest chunk of this sector. Others include security, i.e. locks, cameras and detectors. However never forgetting home entertainment like smart TV’s.

Cities can exploit IoT by creating smart structures, services and utilities. These services will allow cities to procure maximum benefit of capital assets. Capital assets include better traffic flows, better use of public structures, more efficient energy use, and more efficient scheduled services like trash pickup. Businesses, especially those related to retail stores, also stand to gain from the “smart” movement. Businesses that employ digital signage, real-time pricing, and coupons will see great improvements. And last but not least, Industrial markets will exploit IoT. This sector has already seen great movement and vast improvement. Allowing companies to reduce cost and improve efficiency in order to deliver a superior product to customers.

By 2020, there will be so many devices connected and so much information being analyzed that it will be hard to find anything not connected to a network of some sort. While similar technologies have been making the rounds in tech for years, the difference is how pervasive the impact of the IoT will be. Markets of all sizes and types will be able to harness IoT and make better business decisions, create efficiencies, and dramatically cut waste. This movement has the potential to be great, but as Uncle Ben once said, “With great power comes great responsibility”.